I've now ordered a Printhead replacement (from Hong Kong) which comes in at about half the price of the printer - fingers crossed it works or I'll be grumpy and there'll be more expense .

The EU vote is coming up fast..

It's sad that so much of the ruling of the country ( the UK in this instance ) seems to be about scoring points rather than a carefully thought out strategy for the population and I don't know if anyone is offering up a realistic model of what happens if we vote to leave.

London's population is global with many from Poland and beyond

To be honest I'm not a 100% sure which way I'll vote in the referendum that's being held soon.

Some ideas around regaining control of our economy and laws look initially appealing but has someone proposing exit said what the plan and timetable would be?

I'm thinking that should the vote go against him Cameron's position will become untenable and a new pro exit Tory PM will be anointed nd perhaps an early General Election called

Ahead of this we need to know some answers I think ..

1) Should England vote to exit and other parts of the UK vote to remain will there be further constitutional change to UK and Northern Ireland?

2) What becomes the status of EU citizens in the UK? and conversely how are UK citizens affected who live in other EU countries like those who retire to Spain?

The figures I've seen in Government reports like this one indicate something like 8 million of those living in the UK were born in other countries - this is a big number.

I know that we face unemployment in the UK of around 1.7 million (stated although there are undoubtedly many people who do not register and some people working in the 'Black Economy' and registering) - so could our unemployed workers all find jobs if some or all of the 'guests' went home?

Similarly could the housing crisis be solved by limiting the number of non-UK citizens in the country?

Some industries, like farming and hospitality are heavily dependent on workers from other countries what would the mechanism be to ensure that the hotels and farms could keep functioning?

And the Minimum/living wage

What felt at first to be a reasonable strategy to take people away from state dependency to a position where they keep their own money is of course more complex that we'd hope.

So it is with the National Living wage the idea that people should work and be able to live on what used to be called a minimum wage seems a good one the trouble is that the UK is already attracting many people from other countries in the EU and beyond.

The minimum wage is a draw to the UK - and although initially 15 or so years ago the conventional wisdom was that immigrants (many times the stereotype was a male Polish plumber or decorator) were here to work in the UK, earn some money and after a while return home to raise a family there.
Time has proven this not to be the case and families now settle and perhaps older generations join them.

I hope that there will be a proper answer to these and many other questions before we have the vote in the summer - traditionally an unpopular government gets a raspberry form the electorate - this one though would have far reaching consequences.

Red 209

You need to spot some people this Red outfit for tourist outfit is not going to be missed